Van der Haar escapes to win tactical Hoogerheide World Cup

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One week ahead of the Bieles 2017 UCI World championships, the win at the final Telenet UCI World Cup round of the season was for Lars van der Haar (Telenet Fidea Lions). The 25-year-old Dutch rider completed a long solo and won ahead of teammates Tom Meeusen and Corné van Kessel.

Last week, world champion Wout Van Aert (Crelan-Charles) secured the overall win in the World Cup and he opted out of the World Cup final. His arch rival, Dutch champion Mathieu van der Poel (Beobank-Corendon), had an off day in the race organised by his father Adrie.

For Van der Haar, the win in Hoogerheide came as quite a surprise, knowing he was sidelined by two injuries this season. "Very unexpected," Van der Haar said in the post-race flash interview with Sporza. "It was special. The last lap I couldn't stop smiling."

The fast, frozen course in chilly Hoogerheide provided for a very different race compared to last year's muddy edition that was won by Mathieu van der Poel. This time around, it was very hard to create gaps. In the absence of Wout Van Aert, Van der Poel took a good start and he seemed in total control of affairs during the opening lap.

In the long line behind Van der Poel, there was a problem for Spanish champion Ismail Esteban Aguando which caused a crash for Pan-American champion Stephen Hyde (Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld.com) and blocked the path of Van der Haar. The latter ended up riding outside the top 20 and a good result seemed impossible.

The race dynamic turned around when Van der Poel sat up and allowed other riders to take the initiative. Van der Haar started to believe in his chances and rode the fastest second lap of the pace, moving back into the top 10. During the fourth of ten laps, there were still 26 riders riding within ten seconds of each other.

Suddenly, Van der Poel appeared back in front. He briefly got away with French champion Clément Venturini (Cofidis). Van der Haar reacted fiercely and quickly closed the gap on the two leaders at the beginning of the fifth lap. Tom Meeusen bridged up as well and ten other riders were marking his wheel.

Van der Haar took over the command from Van der Poel, who sat up and blocked the other riders on the singletrack path through the forest. Once out of the forest, Van der Haar had a nice gap. His Telenet Fidea Lion teammates were also present in front, causing the pace to drop completely.

Half a lap later, halfway through the race, Van der Haar had a lead of 20 seconds on the first chasers. "I was struggling in the beginning but then I came back in the race. Van der Poel just did a hard lap. I thought, I'll go in the front and help him, and go on. I think, at that Van der Poel thought, this is ok, let him go. Behind him, were some teammates of mine. It gave me a big gap in a short period of time. Then I was alone," Van der Haar said.

While Van der Haar started clocking steady lap times in front, there was no organised chase behind him. Van der Poel surely didn't mind having a compatriot in front and, intentional or not, he faded further back in the group of 23 riders that rode more or less together.

"It wasn't what I expected. I hoped to go better," Van der Poel said. "It's no drama as next week is what matters most. I'm a bit disappointed but prefer it today over next week. After my first acceleration I realised that there was no punch on my move. I started becoming worse and worse. My legs were really feeling the fatigue.

"I tried to finish the race as good as possible but after a while nothing was going right. Technically it wasn't good either. On a bad day, everything goes bad. The last two years I was always very good here and the week afterwards it was slightly less good. Hopefully it'll be the other way around this time."

During the closing laps, Clément Venturini, Corné van Kessel and Tim Merlier (Crelan-Charles) distanced the rest of the group. Meeusen brought everybody back during the eighth lap. When hitting the penultimate lap, 11 riders were left in contention for the final podium spots, trailing leader Van der Haar by nearly a minute.

The same riders hit the final lap with sprinter Merlier and Meeusen leading the way. Merlier slipped away in the forest, blocking the path of Gianni Meersman (Steylaerts-Verona), and both riders lost out on their podium chances. Meeusen, Van Kessel, Venturini and Kevin Pauwels (Marlux-Napoleon Games) survived in front.

Van Kessel and Meeusen passed Venturini and left him behind before hitting the finishing straight. Meeusen then beat Van Kessel in the sprint for second place. Venturini concluded a strong race in fourth place, holding off Kevin Pauwels in the sprint for fourth place. Merlier was fifth ahead of Vermeersch and strong-finishing German champion Marcel Meisen (Steylaerts-Verona). Mathieu van der Poel finished on a distant 24th place at 2:14, just ahead of his brother David.

Van der Haar acknowledged both his trade teammates and his national team in his post-race interview. "The support of my teammates was really nice and it offered me a big gap. Still, it was difficult to hold onto my lead as it was such a fast course. It was cool to see that my teammates also got onto the podium.

"Worlds? I'm good but it'll be a completely different race. Mathieu? Don't worry. He trained hard. I believe in Mathieu. We all can," Van der Haar said.

Van Aert had already clinched the UCI World Cup series with 530 points. Pauwels held onto second at 474 ahead of Tom Meeusen (447). Laurens Sweeck (ERA Real Estate-Circus) was absent due to illness and dropped a spot to fifth place in favour of Michael Vanthourenhout (Marlux-Napoleon Games), who finished 23rd in Hoogerheide. Van Kessel is the first non-Belgian rider in sixth place with 345 points. Van der Poel missed the two first rounds of the World Cup and finishes in eighth place. European champion Toon Aerts (Telenet Fidea Lions) is out injured after last week's hard crash in Fiuggi. He drops from sixth to ninth place. 

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